Chris Davies praises Jay Stansfield as Birmingham go top

Birmingham boss Chris Davies praised striker Jay Stansfield for taking “the big moment” after his goal at lowly Crawley took the Blues to the top of League One ahead of Christmas Day.

Stansfield, the most expensive ever signing in the third tier at £10million from Fulham, gave his side their seventh successive win in all competitions by glancing in a cross from Keshi Anderson 11 minutes from time.

It was Stansfield’s 11th league goal of the season and Davies said: “It was quite a quiet game for most of our attackers, but he took the big moment.

“After we lost at Shrewsbury, I told the players they could have Christmas with their families if we won all our games up to Christmas so they deserve it.”

Davies admitted his men were “getting used to League One” after taking over the top spot from Wycombe.

He admitted: “The first half was quite frantic but I didn’t think they (Crawley) would sustain it and we finished the game strongly.

“But we weren’t quite ourselves and can definitely improve on that.

“We are top, in good shape but I still think we can play better. However, sending the supporters home happy is the best thing.”

Crawley manager Rob Elliot described Birmingham as a “juggernaut” and reckoned his team had the leaders “panicking and holding on” towards the end of the game.

He said: “We did ourselves proud and I have no criticisms of the players at all.

“Every game we play will not be to that intensity and there is a lot of games to come with the opportunity to pick up points.

“We are punching above our weight but we’re doing brilliantly well.

“We made the best team in the league throw the kitchen sink at us to get a 1-0 win.

“We are on a learning curve and we are moving forward positively.”